Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hair in Westerfield home similar to Danielle's: (6-25-2002 Van Dam vs. Westerfield Trial Coverage)
North County Times-San Diego ^ | June 25, 2002 | Kimberly Epler

Posted on 06/25/2002 9:30:26 AM PDT by FresnoDA

Hair in Westerfield home similar to Danielle's

KIMBERLY EPLER
Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- A police criminalist testified Monday that tiny pieces of evidence ---- hairs and carpet fibers ---- found in David Westerfield's house and motor home could link the Sabre Springs man to Danielle van Dam, the 7-year-old neighbor he is accused of kidnapping and murdering.

Tanya DuLaney, a trace evidence analyst with the San Diego Police Department, said blonde hairs, dog hairs and tan carpet fibers found on Westerfield's property were similar to Danielle's hair, the short brown-gray fur of the van Dam family dog and Danielle's bedroom carpet.


DuLaney said she could not make a 100 percent match of the hair and fiber evidence.

Westerfield, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and murdering Danielle. The young girl was reported missing Feb. 2. Her nude and decomposing body was found nearly four weeks later in rural East County.

Westerfield, a twice-divorced design engineer, kept his hands clasped in front of him during Monday's proceedings, occasionally writing notes and consulting with his attorneys.

Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam, attended the entire hearing. The van Dams live two doors down the street from Westerfield and were passing acquaintances with him. Damon van Dam sat with his wife during the morning session.

Day 12 of Westerfield's trial was dominated by the hair and fiber testimony of DuLaney, who told jurors that light brown-blonde hairs found in Westerfield's motor home and house were similar to Danielle's hair in color, length, diameter. Westerfield has short, dark hair.

Jurors heard testimony that DNA evidence will show Danielle could have left the blonde hairs found on sheets and pillow cases taken from Westerfield's master bedroom ---- the first possible evidence placing the second-grader upstairs in his home.

"They could have come from Danielle van Dam," DuLaney said of tests performed on the hairs. "All six of them."

Further testimony on the hair samples is expected today or later this week when prosecutors are expected to wrap up their side of the case.

Meanwhile, Westerfield's defense attorney, Steven Feldman, focused on what didn't match, having DuLaney go over hair after hair found in the motor home ---- some brown and others color-treated blonde ---- which were determined not to be Danielle's because of color, length or dye.

Earlier in the trial, Brenda van Dam testified her daughter's hair was never dyed and Danielle had a haircut about a week before she disappeared. Van Dam also had testified she took Danielle to Westerfield's house to sell Girl Scout cookies a few days before Danielle disappeared. She testified her daughter went into the house briefly, but did not go upstairs.

The tedium of the fiber and hair testimony prompted Judge William Mudd to give jurors an extra long afternoon break.

Feldman followed the same line of questioning with the carpet fibers, asking about fibers that didn't match. He called attention to a lack of physical evidence putting Danielle in Westerfield's black Toyota 4Runner, the car Westerfield drove when he went to get his motor home on Feb. 2 ---- the morning Danielle was discovered missing.

None of Danielle's hair or blood was found in the vehicle, another police criminalist, David Cornacchia, testified. Nor were any of the carpet fibers lifted from the soles of Westerfield's 25 pairs of shoes similar to Danielle's bedroom carpet, DuLaney said.

Also on Monday, DuLaney told jurors about finding five carpet fibers in Westerfield's motor home that were similar in size and shape to Danielle's bedroom carpet.

She showed jurors enlarged pictures, showing the fibers side by side with those from Danielle's bedroom and magnified 400 times, to illustrate how the fibers were consistent.

Under questioning from Feldman, Westerfield's defense attorney, DuLaney said it was possible that many houses in a development like the Sabre Springs neighborhood where the van Dams and Westerfield lived could have the same carpet.

She also talked about dog hairs found in dryer lint thrown away in Westerfield's garage. More hair was found in the hallway carpet of his motor home, on a bath mat in the motor home and on a white towel. Those hairs were consistent with the hair on van Dam's dog, Leyla, DuLaney testified. Westerfield does not have a dog.

Brenda van Dam testified earlier in the trial that her daughter would often roll around with Leyla, especially after she had changed into her pajamas before going to bed.

While the dog hair found in Westerfield's house and motor home had the unusual pigment formations found in Leyla's hair, DuLaney said she could only say the hairs were similar, not exact matches.

Attempts to perform DNA tests on the hair were unsuccessful, said Holly Ernest, director of the UC Davis veterinary genetics lab. She briefly testified that there was not enough DNA on the dog hair sent to the university for testing to determine whether it belonged to Leyla.

Feldman did not ask Ernest any questions.

Testimony in the case continues today.

Contact staff writer Kimberly Epler at (760) 739-6644 or kepler@nctimes.com.

6/25/02


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: vandam; westerfield
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 781-800801-820821-840 ... 901-906 next last
To: Southflanknorthpawsis
hmmm...not sure about that.

I am not clear as to where the info about the VD porn came from.....not sure how it would ever get admitted as relevant.

It sure would cast doubt on the fact that he is a pedophile......and then do they change the motive to revenge cuz he couldn't be a part of their adult sex games?....they seem to want to cast him in both lights.

I wish both parties porn would be shown to the jury....you can't tell me a couple goes right into swinging and swapping without a porn push.

801 posted on 06/25/2002 10:37:59 PM PDT by Rheo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 798 | View Replies]

To: Rheo
I wish both parties porn would be shown to the jury....you can't tell me a couple goes right into swinging and swapping without a porn push.

What if, instead of a porn push, they used a drug push?

802 posted on 06/25/2002 10:48:46 PM PDT by sbnsd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 801 | View Replies]

To: All
Everyone who has viewed this web page, whether they like it or not, now has a copy of the testtube.jpg on their hard disk. Even if you didn't read my post, you're still stuck with that image on your hard disk. In a FAIR world, all Feldman would have to show is that there is no link between the images themselves on DW's hard disk and DW himself. Just as those with the picture of the testtube above, have no link between it and the supposed plant cells it contains. Images can very easily be transfered to our hard disks with completely innocent explanations. Hundreds of images even depicting filth can be there and very few users would know it. Cache memory and cache files are necessary these days. And with cache, one can easily get what one wouldn't normally want.
803 posted on 06/25/2002 10:49:06 PM PDT by pyx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 752 | View Replies]

To: Rheo
DW's disks vs. VD's home videos, tonight on pay for view!
804 posted on 06/25/2002 10:49:06 PM PDT by John Jamieson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 801 | View Replies]

To: pyx
A point that I've been trying to make for days. Very slick. Now what color glasses to we need to see the hidden porn images?
805 posted on 06/25/2002 10:51:09 PM PDT by John Jamieson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 803 | View Replies]

To: Rheo
I think you are right about the relevance, but Feldman could get a lot of miles on innuendo during the defense case. If porn makes DW dangerous to children, what does that make BVD, DVD, and their "friends"?

Of course he may not come right out and say it, but he may lead the jury to think of it on their own.

I do think he will somehow take advantage of the fact that the van Dams are not sympathetic people and the jury that is offended by adult porn will perhaps be equally or more offended by and suspicious of real life perversion in the very home where children reside.

806 posted on 06/25/2002 10:51:25 PM PDT by Southflanknorthpawsis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 801 | View Replies]

To: pyx
I agree with you there on all the jpgs that you don't even intentionally want to view are just on your computer in some cache folder.

The problem is the categorized, filed, burned to CD/zip drive jpgs. That means intent to keep/save. Those are harder to explain away.

807 posted on 06/25/2002 10:52:25 PM PDT by sbnsd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 803 | View Replies]

To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
I pointed everyone to that link mainly to see the reports that were being given from their news sources. what did you think of those?

The reports? I guess you mean their reports of what the reactions were to seeing the rape video?

I can't argue with a negative reaction to seeing this kind of perversion. It is what people should have. But they are turning it against DW. That is the effect the Prosecution wants, of course, but is it correct? Did they ever prove DW even saw it?

808 posted on 06/25/2002 10:54:16 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 784 | View Replies]

To: sbnsd
Are CDROMs and Zip disks more or less offensive than the same thing in magazines, books and video tapes?
809 posted on 06/25/2002 10:56:08 PM PDT by John Jamieson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 807 | View Replies]

To: John Jamieson
What? I don't understand your question. Do you mean the contents? If so, then the contents are whatever he puts on the CDs. The contents could even be the same as mags, books, video. I'm not sure what you're asking.
810 posted on 06/25/2002 10:59:27 PM PDT by sbnsd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 809 | View Replies]

To: sbnsd
Both probably and/or alcohol...but, of course, their porn usage is not on trial.
811 posted on 06/25/2002 10:59:30 PM PDT by Rheo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 802 | View Replies]

To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
"You've represented (during cross-examination) that there's just 13 images that can be found against your client,"

I didn't get to hear exactly what Feldman said during cross that would cause this.

I don't understand how, during cross of a witness, you can even do this. The witness would have to be the one to answer YES or NO to a question to cause this.

Since I am not a lawyer, or a judge, my opinion on this doesn't carry much weight. But, I would reserve judgment until I heard exactly what Feldman could have said to cause this.

Lawyers do not give TESTIMONY, so how could this be?

812 posted on 06/25/2002 10:59:39 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 786 | View Replies]

To: Southflanknorthpawsis
If porn makes DW dangerous to children, what does that make BVD, DVD, and their "friends"?

The van Dams, as repellent as it is, engaged in consensual acts between adults (and I DO find it repulsive).

DW kept images, including videos, of little girls being raped. In addition, there is a dead little girl whose blood, hair and fingerprints are in his MH. Fibers from his laundry and bed are similar to fibers on her body and at the area where she is found. Her hair is in his home, including bed and laundry. And she was found without clothes.

Relevance would be my guess as to why the porn from the DW house gets in and no van Dam stuff.

813 posted on 06/25/2002 11:00:21 PM PDT by cyncooper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 806 | View Replies]

To: pyx
Dang!
814 posted on 06/25/2002 11:00:45 PM PDT by Rheo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 803 | View Replies]

To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
Good night Kim, and THANKS .
815 posted on 06/25/2002 11:00:47 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 789 | View Replies]

To: sbnsd
The problem is the categorized, filed, burned to CD/zip drive jpgs. That means intent to keep/save. Those are harder to explain away.

Exactly.

816 posted on 06/25/2002 11:01:33 PM PDT by cyncooper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 807 | View Replies]

To: John Jamieson
I don't have time for pay for view...I have a test tube on my hard drive now that I have to get rid of!:-)

Who determined if there was or was not questionable images on the VD's computers?

817 posted on 06/25/2002 11:02:52 PM PDT by Rheo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 804 | View Replies]

To: Southflanknorthpawsis
.......will that then open the door to the van Dam lifestyle and it's indications?

I brought up the same thing, would that open the door to the PORN found on the VD computers, if rumor is true, or PORN found in the VD garage, if also true.

I was reminded by a poster that this trial is about the GUILT or NON GUILT of DW and no one else.

So, it might not open that door.

818 posted on 06/25/2002 11:05:02 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 798 | View Replies]

To: Rheo
Both probably and/or alcohol...but, of course, their porn usage is not on trial.

Nope, out of scope. Sometimes, I wonder how they know what's "in scope" and what's not. If they had covered more ideas and thought, there wouldn't be so many holes and unanswered questions.

819 posted on 06/25/2002 11:07:24 PM PDT by sbnsd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 811 | View Replies]

To: Southflanknorthpawsis
No doubt about it....any thinking person on that jury would have to contemplate the comparisions of adult porn on a computer and real life "porn" in the home.

He has already shown that 5 of the 14 images shown today came from Neils computer...raised doubt on the zip discs as not printed....omitted the fact that porn surfing was going on while DW was not even home......reasonable doubt at this point.

820 posted on 06/25/2002 11:08:35 PM PDT by Rheo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 806 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 781-800801-820821-840 ... 901-906 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson